Tag: responsible tourism

Traveling the world is great... but, let's be real, it can also have a negative environmental and social impact. Travel and tourism face big challenges:

• Air travel's contributions to climate change
• A lack of community resilience and inclusion highlighted by the pandemic
• Overtourism impacts
• Animal welfare concerns

While many of us aware of these problems, we're also unsure of what we can do to decrease our individual impact — aside from staying home forever. We'd like to invite you to an exciting upcoming virtual event with one of the best sustainable tourism consultants out there, O'Shannon Burns. O’Shannon is a DC-based sustainability consultant with deep experience shaping mission-driven businesses and embedding regenerative principles into operations with a focus on travel, tourism, climate action, and conservation. She currently works with Regenerative Travel, Eplerwood International, FLYTE (Nomadic Matt's non-profit), and previously spent a decade working at National Geographic! Her work is driven by the belief that travel can transform our understanding of the world (and ourselves), build community, and help to create a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient planet. In this session, you will:

• Explore some of the top environmental and social issues in travel today
• Learn frameworks for how you can shift your mindset and planning to increase your positive social and environmental impact
• Hear some of O'Shannon's experiences working alongside hotels and tour operators on their sustainability and community initiatives
• Discover ways to make a positive change in local communities

ABOUT THE SPEAKER O'Shannon Burns serves as Ecosystem Steward at Regenerative Travel where she works together with 50 hotel owners and managers to realize their vision of social and environmental impact by co-creating a vibrant ecosystem where properties can learn, engage each other, and discover opportunities for greater sustainability and regeneration. O'Shannon also works as a consultant for Eplerwood International and has focused on capacity building for the sustainable management of tourism destinations, investment in sustainable tourism models, and frameworks for the recovery and resilience of destinations in Southeast Asia and Canada. Previously, she spent a decade at National Geographic — first administering grant programs for explorers, scientists, and storytellers at the Society, National Geographic’s global non-profit organization committed to exploring and protecting the planet, and then overseeing a number of programs for National Geographic Expeditions. While there, she was appointed as an internal sustainability leader and expert, and embedded sustainable tourism ethos and principles into the brand's travel business. Connect with O'Shannon:

• Regenerative Travel's website and on Instagram
• Eplerwood International
• Join the Regenerative Travel Virtual Summit from September 20-23, 2021 by signing up here.

WATCH THE PRESENTATION